Airbus edges Boeing in orders race at Paris show

LE BOURGET, France: Airbus glided past US rival Boeing to take top honors in their annual competition to sell commercial jets at the Paris Air Show, according to final tallies that together amounted to over $107 billion in business.
The announcements Thursday capped four days of deal-making at the biennial air show, when top executives from the world's largest airlines clink champagne glasses and write whopping checks as test pilots fly demonstrations of high-tech aircraft at Paris' normally sleepy Le Bourget airfield.
Airbus racked up $57 billion worth of business for 421 aircraft. The announcement of a provisional deal by European low-cost carrier Wizz Air for 110 A321neos — worth more than $12.5 billion at list prices — put the Toulouse, France-based plane maker over the top Thursday against Boeing in financial terms. It was the show's single biggest order.
Chicago-based Boeing tallied orders and commitments for 331 planes worth $50.2 billion. Its biggest deal was with Dutch leasing company AerCap for 100 737MAX-8 planes, worth up to $10.7 billion at list prices. Customers routinely negotiate discounts off those list prices.
Overall, business was not as good as in previous years. Last year, at Britain's Farnborough Air Show, which trades the spotlight with Paris from year to year as the site of Europe's premier aviation event, Airbus clinched orders and commitments for 486 aircraft valued at $75 billion. But Boeing won more this year than last, when it landed business worth $40.2 billion for 201 planes.